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Thinking of making my own mufflers

32K views 157 replies 32 participants last post by  vindex1963 
#1 ·
I was looking at this quiet Bassani baffle I have and the way it looks I should be able to gut the stockers and use this as a baffle. My Vegas has the performance Bassani baffle in at that I wrapped in stainless steel screen followed by stainless steel wool wrapped with fiberglass and doing this they pretty much never burn out. My Bassani on the Vegas has soot on it but it's 100% in tact and not a bit brittle. So why not do that with the Cross Country.

Educate me as to why this might not work...

Here's the baffle.


The flange is 3 7/8"


Front is 2 3/8"


Steps down to an ID of 2.175


Overall of 21"
 
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#2 ·
it would. its similar to how i do mine, i drill my baffles though, and weld them in so no leaks
 
#3 ·
I was advised that my baffle would be loud and raspy using the Bassani so it looks like the glasspack mod is in my future. I have a set of stockers on the way to cut up.
 
#4 ·
i agree, the size of the baffle makes the difference, smaller diameter will make it raspier, larger, deeper. thrush glasspacks neck down, say you get a 2.25" inlet/outlet, the through tube will most likely be 2", and its a perforated baffle, no louvers, i like this about the thrush, what i didnt like was the necking down
 
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#5 ·
I did the Thrush on my bike. Nice sound when you rip on it, fairly quiet cruising around. Just right for the radio. I have 2.25" outlet. Just so you know, the cans weigh a ton with the Thrush stuffed in them.
 
#18 ·
This is exactly what I did after driving around with no baffles for a year. The bike runs so much better and i have virtually no backfires. Very nice deep, rich sound.
 
#8 ·
So the people doing the Thrush mod did you have to also remove the mesh liner inside the mufflers? Looking at the video that's a HUGE PITA and the guy ended up splitting the muffler.
 
#9 ·
The first set I did I took out the metal mesh and the fiberglass wrap or whatever the cloth is, the outer casing was completely empty.The last couple sets I Left the cloth in. I take the metal mesh out. I cut the ends off that mesh part and use them on the ends of the thrush so I can weld the thrush to the end and then the end to the outer shell. That way I have no leaks around the thrush.
 
#11 · (Edited)
I used FlowTech mufflers with a 2 1/2" inlet/outlet, and my pipes are nice and deep at idle, and growl when I get it on. BTW, cut the stockers an inch from the factory welds and the mesh will come out easier!
 
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#12 ·
I made similar baffles for mine as well. I started with the design you are looking at. I made up 6 different designs and settled on a particular design. Go to any site that sells cobra USA baffles for their pipes. Look at the quiet core baffles and you will see the design I ended up with. It is deeper sounding than the louver cores that you considered. They have worked well for the past year. I'm pleased with the sound.
 
#13 ·
Before I went the Bassini Header I did this. 2" od with a short flutted baffle inside. HD riders would tell me the nice sounding pipe. No packing was needed. I took out almost 50% of the packing out of my header after putting it on.



Putting the Bassini Road Rage header on got rid of this.



It also got rid of 10 plus pounds of #2 muffler.
 
#14 ·
Tom, before you do the thrush mod, call me...shoot me a PM for my #. I've already done it and figured out a few things so the engineering is already done .
Also, you can hear how they sound(freaking awesome!) before you do it. We still need to meet up for coffee and a photo op. Be really cool to get 2 Titanium suede XC's together for a photo.

I also have a welder :wink
 
#20 ·
Here is what I've got!!!

OEM Cross Country dealer take off mufflers that way I could ride while I did this project.

Bassani Road Rage quiet baffles.

3 5/8" hole saw to take out the end of the muffler. I bought a Harbor Freight high torque drill to do the job because I knew it would cook it and by the second muffler is was about dead.
I used all thread and two sockets that just fit in the end of the muffler as a guide for the saw.


Securely strapped the muffler down


Cut the end off.


Hole sawed the end of the muffler, it was fairly quick but takes some strength to do that's a big hole saw.


Factory baffle just slides out.


I cut the top support off the factory baffles and opened the inside to fit over the Bassani baffle then welded them in place.


I had wanted to wrap them in stainless steel wool and cover them with fiberglass mat but there wasn't room so I went with a LOT of the wool and no fiberglass. It may not look like it but that's about 10 feet of wool 4" wide 1/4" thick. Good part is you wrap it really tight and use masking tape to compress it way down and when you run the bike the tape burns off and the wool expands and fills the muffler body.
 
#21 ·
The Bassani flange side when ground down was a perfect fit into the step created by the hole saw. I then welded them in place.


When you look from the front side of the muffler the Bassani baffle butts up against the collector inside of the OEM muffler body. It's an absolutely perfect transition from the OEM to the Bassani. I swear it's like they were designed to do what I did them them.


Both rolls started as 18' for 4" wide by 1/4 stainless steel wool. They are one long strand and with the stainless steel screen this packing will outlast the bike and never burn out unlike fiberglass.
I had very little waste.



I'm going to mount them tomorrow because today I'm tired of working on these in 100+ temps and they are also drying after I sprayed the ends to prevent rust.
 
#25 ·
In my experience, video clips of muffler sound does no justice to hearing them in person.
HOWEVER, if you have listed to enough videos of peoples' mufflers, one can extrapolate an idea of just what they might sound ilke in real life.

Record away!
 
#26 ·
Here's a sound clip. Notice ZERO backfire!!!!! Low rumble and actually pretty quiet exactly like I was looking for but barks when you get on it.

One thing about compressing the stainless steel wool with masking tape is it stinks like crazy burning off but that's exactly why it works so well it burns away quick.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WCCL5U48PI&feature=youtu.be






.
 
#35 · (Edited)
Great sound...not bad at all for an amateur job :wink

Wow, that sounds SO MUCH like mine.

They do sound similar....but your sound clip is more like a horror show.
dunt, dunt, DUnt, DUNT.....AHHHHH! Broggy....DUNT, Dunt, dunt.....dunt, dunt, DUnt, DUNT.....AHHHHH! Broggy again! ....DUNT, Dunt, dunt :devil
 
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#29 ·
Wow, that sounds SO MUCH like mine.

 
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#33 ·
The 25 mile ride to work was good the bike runs great and seem to climb RPM faster in the upper range then it did before. Sounds fantastic. Smells terrible with the masking tape burning out.
 
#34 ·
The 25 mile ride to work was good the bike runs great and seem to climb RPM faster in the upper range then it did before. Sounds fantastic.
I experienced the same thing. Harder pulls at speed in the upper RPM areas as compared to before. I'm digging it.
 
#39 ·
Ordered new tips today on the suggestion of Mr Miller's Mufflers and I agree with him the factory tips have a rolled lip on them and I can hear the air "puffing" on them in the upper RPM's.

Doing your own projects brings out some great discussion and learning. I like that.
 
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#40 ·
Which tips did you go with?
BTW, your project looks like it turned out great!
 
#42 ·
Agreed. I did not take out the inner mesh. What I did was bang the glasspacks into place by slamming the muffler can over them by banging them on a block of wood. Every strike was worth about an inch or so and went in fairly decently -- and they damn sure aren't going anywhere :)
 
#44 ·
Vindex....nice tits
 
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#46 ·
Not to shabby and the price is right.

Or you could spend $8 for an 18" length of tail pipe, weld half to each muffler, slash cut to match tips and your done. Unless you just like throwing money around. ; )
WTF are you talking about did you do a hack job like that to your bike? Lets see photo of that.
 
#45 ·
Or you could spend $8 for an 18" length of tail pipe, weld half to each muffler, slash cut to match tips and your done. Unless you just like throwing money around. ; )
 
#48 ·
Got ya mine are black so it won't be noticed if they were chrome I would have to do something different. I also like the stock look but they aren't working for my application. I figure I've saved a ton of $$ making my own top quality mufflers so a set of $100 tips (also cheap) is worth it.
 
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